Almond Flour Bread

Almond flour gives this loaf of yeast bread a slightly nutty flavor and results in an amazing texture. If you want to try baking with almond flour, this is the perfect recipe!

As you know from my many bread posts, I get really excited about my bread recipes. There is something so satisfying about baking your own loaf of bread. But today’s loaf is very special, and therefore I am even more excited than usual. That’s because it comes from this amazing cookbook, which happens to be written by my lovely aunt, Barbara Bryant, along with Betsy Fentress. Ok yes, I am totally biased on this one, but seriously – it is a gorgeous cookbook that is all about Almonds! It is full of the interesting history of almonds, beautiful photos, and tons of delicious recipes. I highly recommend checking it out.

I will be trying many recipes from this book (Soba Noodles with Spicy Almond Butter Sauce anyone?) but I knew the first recipe I wanted to try – Almond Flour Bread.

The amazing author of this cookbook, my aunt, was the person who taught me to bake bread! So of course I had to to try out her recipe. Plus, I had never baked with almond flour before and was very intrigued by it. I love the flavor of almonds, and was excited to try baking bread with it!

I got all my ingredients together to make this bread and started mixing the dough. It was only then that I realized, as a novice almond baker, that I had purchased almond meal rather than almond flour! Whoops. I did not realize that these were different things.

Almond flour is ground blanched almonds with the skin removed, whereas almond meal is ground almonds with the skin still on. I decided to just go for it and use the almond meal, and the bread turned out great! It is a bit denser than the almond flour bread, and therefore the loaves are a bit smaller. But the flavor and texture is great, and I actually like the look of the brown skin flecks in the bread. My co-worker is my official bread taste tester, and she said this was her favorite loaf yet!

Other than the slightly unusual ingredient (almond flour) this bread is just like any other loaf of yeast bread. You mix together the ingredients, then knead the dough until it is nice and smooth. Let it rise until it has doubled in volume, then shape it into two loaves. Let it rise again, then bake it!

The almond flour / meal gives the bread a very subtle nutty flavor, and a touch of honey sweetens up the dough. The bread has a tight crumb, which makes it ideal for sandwiches or toast, and the flavor is amazing! Almond flour (I bought a bag of it after my little almond meal mistake!) will definitely be making more appearances in my baking repertoire.

And be sure to check out the Almonds: Recipes, History, Culture cookbook. It is a gorgeous addition to any cookbook collection, would look perfect on a coffee table, and would make a lovely gift for anyone!

Almond flour gives this loaf of yeast bread a slightly nutty flavor and results in an amazing texture. If you want to try baking with almond flour, this is the perfect recipe!

Ingredients

4 cups (570 g) bread flour

1 cup (90 g) almond flour or almond meal (I used almond meal. The bread will rise more if you use almond flour)

2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups (375 ml) warm water (105 - 115 degrees F)

3 tablespoons honey

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, sea salt, and yeast. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the warm water and honey. Add the water mixture to the flour, and stir until dough just starts to come together.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place the dough in a large bowl coated with oil. Turn the dough to coat all sides with oil, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest in a warm draft-free place until it has doubled in size, 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Punch the dough down and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough in half and shape each into a loaf. Place in two greased 8x4inch loaf pans. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap sprayed with nonstick coking spray, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Bake the bread for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 375 and bake for 15 - 20 minutes longer, until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

I would never have guessed that you could make bread from almond meal, but it totally makes sense that you can! Which means it’s gluten free, right? I know I would love this … definitely pinning for future reference!

Well, you know what a fan I am of almond flour (and almonds in general) so I definitely have to get my hands on a copy of this book! I might give this a shot with gluten-free flour and see how it comes out!

This looks great! I’ve only recently started using almond flour in recipes. I also recently received a bread machine as a gift and have enjoyed using it. How would this recipe do in a bread machine? Or should I just stick to the hand making as outlined here?

Hi Callie! Thanks for the comment and I apologize for the delay in answering. I have actually never used a bread machine, so I have no advice for you! If you try it, let me know how it works! I love this recipe, I think I am going to make another loaf this weekend!

Thanks for getting back to me! Sorry to be a bit long in getting back to you!

I did try it in the bread machine. I cut the recipe in half because my machine has a capacity of 4 cups of flour, since this calls for 4 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of almond, I decided half would be the easiest conversion. It did work–bread was made and it was tasty. I will say that the machine cooked the loaf a bit longer than your recipe called for so the crust was a bit hard but it was still easy to slice and very tasty. I would do it again. Now I want to try it in the regular oven though, to see if there’s a difference!

To make grain breads rise better, you can include one or more of these:

* a tablespoon per loaf of dried milk powder (Carnation or whatever)
* 1/4 tsp. ginger (old-fashioned remedy)
* potato water (just cut up a large potato cook it in water for about 3-4 minutes in the microwave, then drain and use cooled potato water for your recipe) — the potato starch gives more fluff to your bread.